Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Morphing Intelligence: From IQ Measurement to Artificial Brains
ISBN: 9780231547239
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Columbia University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Intellect; Artificial intelligence; Human Brain Project; Neuroinformatics; Neurosciences;

French philosopher Malabou (Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality) continues to ponder the ever-evolving definition of intelligence at the dawn of AI in a directionless and unprovocative analysis. This slender volume centers on what Malabou dubs the three "metamorphoses" of intelligence throughout recent history, from the innatist view, which prevailed for much of the 20th century, through the era of epigenetics in the 1980s, which demonstrated the role and importance of neuroplasticity, to the present moment, which finds humanity on the cusp of artificial intelligence. Quoting heavily from such thinkers as Michel Foucault and Jean Piaget, she argues that at this moment it must be conceded that human intelligence is no different from artificial intelligence, as "a set of dispositions that are exposed, fragile, open, and contingent in their topological organization and that do not reflect any predestination or plan." As such, Malabou wonders why serious thinkers do not "give up intelligence as an independent philosophical question." She hastily outlines some vague ideas for educational reform, such as the "neurohumanities"- a fusion of the humanities and neuroscience-to accommodate this paradigm shift. But Malabou underdelivers as a philosopher and neuroscientist, providing very little new insight to the topics addressed. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Catherine Malabou (PhD, Philosophy, Ecole normale superieure de Fontenay-St. Cloud) is Professor of Comparative Literature at UC Irvine. She is the author of a number of books, including (translated into English) Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality (Polity, 2016), Ontology of the Accident (Polity, 2012), The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain Damage (Fordham, 2012), The Heidegger Change: On the Fantastic in Philosophy (SUNY, 2011), Cganging Difference: The Feminine and the Question of Philosophy (Polity, 2011), Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing (Columbia, 2009), What Should We Do with Our Brain? (Fordham, 2008), The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality, and Dialectic (Routledge, 2004), (with Jacques Derrida) Counterpath (Stanford, 2004), and (with Adrian Johnston) Self and Emotional Life: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Neurobiology (Columbia, 2013).Shread Carolyn :

Carolyn Shread (PhD, French University of Massachusetts at Amherst) is a Lecturer in French at Mt. Holyoke College. Her articles have appeared in TTR; NeoHelicon; Palimpsestes; French Literature Series and The Journal of Haitian Studies. In 2012, her article "On Becoming in Translation: Articulating Feminisms in the Translation of Marie Vieux-Chauvet's Les Rapaces" won a national research award, the Florence Howe Award for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship.She has translated ten books, including four by Catherine Malabou.Catherine Malabou is professor of philosophy at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London, and of comparative literature at the University of California, Irvine. Her many books include What Should We Do with Our Brain? (2008), Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing (Columbia, 2009), and Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality (2016).

Carolyn Shread is lecturer in French at Mount Holyoke College and teaches translation studies at Smith College. Her translations include several works by Catherine Malabou.